Abstract

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Abstract
In this presentation, you will learn about our
topic Tropical Forests and Global Environmental
Change. You will learn what are several
interesting things such as what are phytoliths,
how humans affect tropical forests and how can we
address them. The issues are how humans destroy
animal habitats, cutting trees for agriculture,
building factories, and urban development of the
city.
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Hypothesis
Our hypothesis is

• Tropical forests are very important and humans
  are destroying them little by little. From these
  forests we can get a lot of important things such
  as medical cures from the plants, and information
  about many species living there. If we keep
  destroying them we wont only take away the
  habitats of many, many animals but also we will
  affect the carbon cycle because all that trees
  take great part in the cycle because they give us
  oxygen. Only by taking more care of our
  environment and preserving tropical forests we
  will make a better world!

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How does carbon move through the
environment? How are humans affecting the carbon
cycle and why should we care? What is the role
of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle?
What methods do scientists use to examine
panamas past? How do humans affect tropical
forests? How have people from different time
periods used panamas land resources?
skeleton
of ideas
What are the factors that led to deforestation
and how can we address them? What is the status
of the forests in the panama canal area? How do
people affect tropical forests?
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Carbon In Motion
The global carbon cycle consists of some major
chemical processes which are metablism,
photosynthesis and mineralization. This is how
carbon moves from one part to another part of the
earth. As you know we humans need oxygen to
breath so we inhale oxygen and as a reaction of
our body we exhale carbon and that carbon is what
plants need for their main process called
photosynthesis. Plants produce oxygen and we
exhale carbon so we are each helping each other.
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Subtopic QuestionS
1. How does carbon move through the environment?
2. how are humans affecting the carbon cycle and
why should we care?
3. What is the role of tropical forests in the
global carbon cycle?
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In addition to recycling nutrients and water,
earth recycles carbon. The carbon cycle is a
complex series of processes through which all of
the carbon atoms on earth rotate. In one part of
the cycle, plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO2)
from the atmosphere and through photosynthesis
incorporate the associated carbon atoms into
sugars and other molecules necessary for growth.
We humans and some other animals inhale oxygen
to breathe and as a reaction to the body we
exhale carbon dioxide into the atmosphere then
plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
during photosynthesis to generate energy in a
process called respiration. This process returns
carbon atoms back to the atmosphere in the form
of CO2. and it never ends the carbon cycle
repeats over and over again. This is how carbon
goes from place to place or how does it moves
through the environment.
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Several ways humans affect the carbon cycle
are Oceans Lakes - pollution from
shipping Plants -cutting trees - forest fires
caused by misuse of campfires - over use of
paper Fossil Fuels -The start of the industrial
revolution sometime around the middle of the 19th
century - wasting heat and electricity - too many
cars or trucks - drive everywhere - bad energy
use - leave lights on -The start of the
industrial revolution sometime around the middle
of the 19th century Why should we care We should
care first, because carbon is what we as well as
all of the other plants and animals on earth are
made of (50 of our dry weight) and second
because carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide
(CO2), is the major greenhouse gas released to
the atmosphere as a result of human activities.
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Forests play an important role in the global C
cycle because they store large quantities of C in
vegetation and soil, exchange C with the
atmosphere through photosynthesis and
respiration Forest management options are
necessary to prevent forests becoming a
significant net source of CO2 to the atmosphere
in the future and contributing to climate
change. Forests are influenced by natural and
human causes, including harvesting and
over-harvesting The current role of forests in
the global C cycle is not only a function of
present forest land use, but also of past use and
disturbance. Prior to this century CO2 emissions
from changes in forest land use, mainly caused by
agricultural expansion in mid- and high latitude
countries, were higher than emissions from the
combustion of fossil fuels (Houghton and Skole,
1990).
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Carbon dioxide molecule
Methane molecule
Fluorocarbon
Nitrous carbon
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Disappearing Tropical Forests
In other words, disappearing tropical forests
means deforestation, but what does deforestation
mean? In case that you dont know, deforestation
is to cut down and clear away the trees or
forests. This means, in a more specific term,
that people use the forests for their needs or
activities such as their cattle raising,
agriculture, tree plantation, and also now in
days they are constructing more and more
buildings, houses and factories for their daily
use in the city. Panama, now in days theres only
30 percent of the forests protected by the
government, this was 40 percent less than 50
years ago. Other factors that lead to
deforestation are careless fires by people,
pollution by factories and pesticides and
finally, experiments made by some scientists with
animals and plants. With all this, our opinion is
that the government should make more protection
laws and they also should educate people.
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Subtopic Questions..
1. How do people affect tropical forests?
2. What is the status of the forests in the
Panama Canal Area?
3. What are the factors that lead to
deforestation and how can we address them?
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• As you know, many people affect tropical forests
  by using parts of the forest for their uses and
  activities, as we have told you, such as cattle
  raising, agriculture and tree plantation, etc.
• Several times, many peasants arrive to this
  tropical forests and they start cutting and
  burning the forest in order to use the land for
  their personal uses and activities.
• This takes a large part of the forest and
  destroys many trees and animal habitats.
• Also, people can damage a great part of the
  tropical or rain forests by doing some
  experiments with some trees and plants, because
  besides destroying some plants with some
  experiments, for camping, they sometimes cut
  trees and destroy nature for their personal camp.

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2 . Answer. . .

• The status of the forests is sometimes bad,
  because of the canals floods , and also besides
  this there is more than one half of Panama is
  forests most of it with tropical rain
  forests.Swamps, mangrove trees, and many
  different animal species are abundant. Also,
  there are at least 2,000 different species of
  flowering plants ,and also among the animals are
  the Giant Anteaters, Bush Dogs, Ocelots, Jaguars,
  Tapirs and Crocodiles.
• Since the making of Panamas Canal, the
  constructers have taken a great part of the
  animals and plants mostly because of the
  buildings, houses and factories for their daily
  life in the city, this can take a great part of
  some animal habitats and also they obviously need
  to log some trees many laws are needed against
  this.

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3 . Answer. . .

• The factors are
• Careless fires by people.
• Pollution by factories and pesticides.
• Illegal Deforestation for wood and paper
  fabrication.
• Agriculture in forested land.
• Peasants cattle raising in some parts of the
  Rainforests.
• Experiments made by scientists.
• We can address them by educating people and
  producing a law protection.

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What is a Phytolith?
Phytoliths are microfossils of a plant that is
made from the wastes of a mineral called silica,
this mineral is found in the cell walls. When the
plant dies the silica stays there forming a
three-dimensional copy of the plant cells. This
copy makes it possible to identify the kind of
plant from where it came from. Most phytoliths
are 10 to 100 microns long (a micron in
one-millionth of a meter).
These are some examples of phytoliths
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Subtopic questions
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Guaymi tribe used the land for crop raising,
farm animal of crop growth. Guaymi also burned
some trees but also left more vegetation for it
to decay. This plan did not focus that the
tropical soils would be strongly discharged by
the cutting and production, hunting, and fishing.
Guaymi putted less dependence on machete, and
more emphasis on the gradual selective clearing
and weeding of plots.
The Guaymi marked seasons not by changes in
temperature, the marked them by noticing
differences in plants. They noted the times of
the year by watching when several kind of plants
finished growing or mature.
The division of landing Panama is very
irregular. Most small landholders get land when
they were brought to work for large farms and
were given plans to cultivate. By developing some
economic strategies that are favorable for the
ecosystem such as ecotourism, butterfly farms,
and medicinal plant crops, nature reserves and
forest lands will be more protected.
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Over half of Earth's tropical forests have
disappeared because of people's acts, this year
an area about the size of Florida will be
disappearing. As some countries don't have
protective forest cover, "rain runs off exosed
ground, eroding away soils, flooding neighboring
lands, and silting streams. When people cut down
trees all the nutrients that are in the
vegetation such as fuel, wood products, mineral
extraction, agriculture, or ranching are lost and
the thin soil disappears.
As people cut trees they affect not only the
forest but also the habitat of a lot of animals.
Imagine all the animals that live in one tree, by
cutting it some of that animals may die and the
others stay without a place to live. Together, we
must start to take care and preserve tropical
forests because they are being destroyed at a
rate of 51 million acres a year. Only this way we
will be able to enjoy all the good things
tropical forests have.
A very good reason to protect the forests is
that scientists have only studied 1 of the
plants that are in tropical forests yet 2,000 of
them have been identified as potential cancer
cures, so if we don't destroy the forests we
could be able to find more plants that have
different cures.
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A
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For examining Panamas past scientists use
fossils. Scientists get a lot of information from
the organism or plant, like how was the
environment in that period of time, what kind of
animal or plant it was, and many other important
information.
From fossils you can learn a lot about how much
parts of the world have change, for example, the
continents have moved and changed a lot since
dinosaurs existed to now, and they are still
moving but we may not notice because of the slow
they move.
Fossils found in Panama have tell scientists
that years ago in Bocas the sea bottom was
supposed to rise and become part of the Isthmus
of Panama but instead it rose and became a
shallow sea, then about 6 million years ago it
fell to a deepness of about 200 meters, and then
go up again to become into a dry land.
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Quiz
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What Are Phytoliths?
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Afood
Bmicrofossils
Crocks
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what is the major green house gas?
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Afluorocarbons
Bmethane
Ccarbon dioxide
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which of this factors can lead to deforestation?
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Acareless fires
B pollution by factories
C both A and B
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Sorry!!
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Yeah That's Right!
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Conclusion
While we did this project we learned many things
about Panamas tropical forests and its global
environmental changes. We learn how humans are
affecting the tropical forests, what is the
factors of deforestation and how can we address
them, what are phytoliths and many more things.
Now after doing this we will be more alert of
what we do that can affect forests because every
time that we kill a tree we are not only
affecting the tree but also all the living things
that live in it and around it. So We also learn
to think twice before we do something that will
have an effect in our environment.
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Bibliography